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EUROPE: #EndSecrecy actions!

Published on

03/28/2017

With one shocking corporate tax scandal following after the other, it is time for the European Union to make multinational corporations publish basic information about where they make profits and what they are paying in taxes – so-called public country by country reporting. This would be a crucial step towards making sure corporations pay their fair share of tax, as it would allow parliamentarians, journalists, tax administrations, NGOs and citizens around the world to see the truth about multinationals’ economic activities.

However, the European Commission’s proposal is extremely weak. It would only oblige companies to publish country by country information from EU countries, and yet to be defined “uncooperative” countries. As long as some countries are not included in the reporting, companies will still be able to shift their profits around and avoid taxes. In addition, the proposal only covers companies with a turnover of more than €750 million, meaning 85-90% of the world’s multinational corporations would not be covered. When multinational corporations don’t pay their fair share of tax it hurts us all, through increasing inequality, painful austerity measures and loss of public services. According to conservative estimates, the EU is losing €50-70 billion each year due to corporate tax avoidance.

But the hardest impacts are felt in developing countries, who currently losing at least €100 billion every year due to tax avoidance by multinationals, yet who would be kept in the dark by this proposal.

Tweet or email the Members of the European Parliament today to make sure they make the proposal fit for purpose – see suggested tweets below!

Transparency would instead lead to a number of important benefits – including better conditions for small and medium enterprises, jobs, and much needed revenue to support public services and sustainable development. Here’s a list of 10 reasons why country by country reporting is a good idea . That’s why many have already expressed their strong support.

Making sure this proposal includes information from all countries where multinationals operate is key to ensuring ordinary citizens are not left footing the bill for a broken global tax system.

Now let’s make sure the European Parliament makes public country by country reporting work – tweet or email MEPs today!

Global Alliance for Tax Justice's regional network member Eurodad just (re-)launched its endsecrecy.EU website, which allows its users to directly tweet their MEPs (in English & their native language) to call on them to adopt an ambitious text on full public country-by-country reporting. The website also includes helpful resources & publications in favour of full public CBCR.